Confessions of a Wino

Every January I do my penance and teach my evil body a lesson by depriving it of alcohol, caffeine and fried foods, and forcing it to strain and pump to weird tunes on my cross training sessions.  Usually I get bored after about two weeks.

Sat here in the middle of my current detox, not one single person has asked me which water is best for detoxifying with, so I thought I would tell you.

The still water of choice in the Wino household is Volvic.  I find Evian just a tad too chalky, and others too expensive, although my local Spar currently has 4L of Evian for £1.25 so chalk it is for now.  Well we are in a depression aren’t we?

On celebratory evenings, my fizz is supplied by San Pellegrino, the sparking water of kings and the Mafia.  The bubbles are just right and if drunk cold, is a perfect refresher after exercise.  The bottle recommends serving at 8 to 10 degrees Celsius but I say take it straight from the fridge at about 5 deg.

So for good detox simply sleep well, drink water and exercise a lot.  You will feel great, but don’t die of boredom.

Currently I have only old wine notes to publish, which offer limited stimulation to a writer’s juice flowing equipment.  Oh well, once more unto the breach of the cross trainer…

In deepest Evian-les-Bains I found one of the best wine shops ever.  La Cave à Paul had such a wide range of Armagnacs going back to the year dot.  But they had none from 1964 (year of my birth), so I settled for second best 1966 (last time England won the World Cup).

And when I got home I discovered that I had also (sort of) unknowingly bought some duty free Armagnac by Sempé (we flew from Geneva, Switzerland).  It was time for a taste test.  But hang on!  There is more complication because I had also invested in Riedel glasses.  The Cognac glass is a small tulip (on the left of the photo below), whereas a traditional Cognac or Armagnac glass is a bowl (shown on the right).  An interesting experiment was to ensue…. 

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Funky.  The French don’t do funky well.  So Café Le Brummels must be owned by a Belgian then.  Did you spot the Belgian beer influences in the photo?

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Was Lausanne really so boring?  We must have thought so, because our only full day there was spent in Evian, courtesy of the excellent and frequent ferry service across Lac Léman.  We were looking for the Riveraine Café for lunch, a place we had visited several years ago and enjoyed many a French laugh (he haw he haw he haw) with the owners.  Sadly the place had closed down.

Searching along the lake front for another resto proved fruitless.  It being October already, the saison de tourisme was already over.  Fortunately, even locals need to eat, so there were some places open on the Rue Nationale (main street).  Le Muratore took my fancy because it actually had customers – always a promising sign.

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